damaba Posted November 8, 2015 Author Share Posted November 8, 2015 Any suggestions on pump size would help also. Refugium is 11 gallons, main tank 17 gallons Link to comment
ragtimewilly Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 I'm no plumbing expert but that gravity fed tube looks too long to work properly without more height, not to mention having pvc running that distance across your living room might take away from the aesthetics, only because your living room looks so nice. If you wanted to run both tanks on the same system maybe consider a hidden sump in between the two tanks, or having the tanks closer together? Link to comment
damaba Posted November 19, 2015 Author Share Posted November 19, 2015 In order to keep cost down I'm going back to my original plan and placing the display refugium on the back burner. I'll be posting tonight my progress on the tank. Link to comment
damaba Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 After reading many post where reefers battled pest from live rock and the considerable cost of live rock, I decided to go with dry rock since it would allow more play with the aquascaping and a potential safer start to my reef. I placed an order for 30 lbs dry rock from reefcleaners.com( $60). A few Pieces were chiseled down to allow some play with scale. Satisfied with the variety of shapes I began to layout the aquascape in my 17 gallon tank. Over may day I neurotically rearranged rocks One inspiration for this tank is the work of Takashi Amano. His beautifully open and dramatic freshwater tanks inspired me to use a similar design philosophy in my tank. I wanted to a create a large airy space for fish to swim and still have lots of rock space to place corals/plants. I'm not 100% satisfied but this is only the base rock and half of the aquascape. Link to comment
damaba Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 At this point Im very happy with the way the tank is looking. I wanted the equipment if visible to be appealing (No room for a sump). One neat idea I had was to encase the wires in PEX tubing. I found the tubing at Lowes for a few dollars and cut a slit in the back to hide the wires. It gives the tank a clean look by hiding wires on the side ones that would be seen through the frosted back. I do have a small tetra whisper HOB filter attached to remove dust. After the tank has cycled it will only be used periodically to run carbon and polish the water. Im thinking for 24 hours after a water changes. Link to comment
damaba Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 Now the cycling process begins. I have my salinity set @ 1.025 and I'v added a bottle of Bio-spira. Im a little confused as to what needs to happen next. Should I feed the tank with a few small flakes of fish food to produce food to feed the bacteria? Or could I kill 3 birds with one stone and get a few small well inspected pieces of live rock rubble. This would allow me to seed coralline algae, introduce biodiversity from the bacteria on the live rock and provide organic matter from dye off that would help the cycle. Thoughts? Link to comment
damaba Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 Since the tank has been running for a day with bio-spira I wanted to get the bacteria something to munch on.I'm Still debating if I should feed the tank with flakes to complete the cycle or grab a few pieces of live rock rubble? or maybe both? suggestions welcome. Link to comment
ragtimewilly Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 I've always added flakes or something to keep the bacteria growth up in the beginning. Link to comment
damaba Posted November 21, 2015 Author Share Posted November 21, 2015 Thanks Ragtime, The tank has been running for about 4 day with bio-spire and a few fishy flakes each morning. Tank Stats Temperature: 79° Salinity: 1.024 Ammonia: 0 PPM Nitrite: .25 PPM Nitrate: 5-10 range (hard to read) Link to comment
damaba Posted November 23, 2015 Author Share Posted November 23, 2015 Went to the LFS and got a Molly to help cycle my tank. He's very hard and being treated well. I also added a few prices of rubble to help seed some coralline alge and add to the bio diversity. Link to comment
damaba Posted November 25, 2015 Author Share Posted November 25, 2015 It's been about a week since the tank has been up an running. Tank Stats Temperature: 78° Salinity: 1.024 Ammonia: 0 PPM Nitrite: 0 PPM Nitrate: 10-20 range (hard to read) Link to comment
damaba Posted November 26, 2015 Author Share Posted November 26, 2015 The tank water is turning yellow. I'm going to run some carbon in my HOB filter for a couple of days. Link to comment
damaba Posted November 28, 2015 Author Share Posted November 28, 2015 Tank Stats Temperature: 78° Salinity: 1.024 Ammonia: 0 PPM Nitrite: 0 PPM Nitrate: 5-10 range Link to comment
damaba Posted November 28, 2015 Author Share Posted November 28, 2015 I'm coming to the end of my tank cycling and was thinking of grabbing some snails to help prevent any hair algae from growing. I'v read good things about Dwarf cerith snails or cerith snails. I'v also made a list of tank inhabitants I plan on stocking. In what general order should I go with? Macros first? A hardy mushroom? Coral? Fish? Corals Frogspaw Gorgonia Purple Plume Blue mushrooms Dendrophyllia zoantids Plants Blue Hypnea Botryocladia Tufted Joint Caulerpa Paspaloides Fish Yellow Watchman Goby & Pistol Shrimp Inverts 5 Cerith snails Arrow crab Link to comment
damaba Posted November 29, 2015 Author Share Posted November 29, 2015 Went ahead and got 5 Cerith snails and 2 checkered Nerit snails. I figured they'd do decent job of getting algae and left over fish food eaten up. Would macro algae and some hardy mushrooms be a good addition next? Link to comment
ragtimewilly Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 My preference is to go cuc first, then fish, and then hardier corals. Staggering between adding livestock is best, allowing your tanks bacteria to grow with the increases in bio-load. I always consider what is being added as well, a snail wont add much bio-load in comparison to a clownfish. Also I've found it best to be patient with corals rather than going out and buying a whole bunch try one or two and see how they fair. Link to comment
damaba Posted December 3, 2015 Author Share Posted December 3, 2015 Thanks ragtime, that's a big help Tank Stats Temperature: 78° Salinity: 1.024 Ammonia: .25 PPM Nitrite: 0 PPM Nitrate: 5-10 range Diatom bloom. Snails are happy Link to comment
damaba Posted December 3, 2015 Author Share Posted December 3, 2015 Blue desert Blue desert Link to comment
damaba Posted December 5, 2015 Author Share Posted December 5, 2015 Tank Stats Temperature: 78° Salinity: 1.024 Ammonia: 0 PPM Nitrite: 0 PPM Nitrate: 5-10 range More of the diatom bloom I ran some carbon to help clear the water, it was very yellow. Doing a little clean up in the tank today and refilling my ato reservoir, 2 gallons seems to last about a week and a half. Link to comment
damaba Posted December 6, 2015 Author Share Posted December 6, 2015 Tank Stats Temperature: 78° Salinity: 1.024 Ammonia: 0 PPM Nitrite: 0 PPM Nitrate: 20-30 range ? Cleaned up tank. Lightly brushed rocks and stired around lots of fish waste and debris from uneaten food. Most of it was sucked up though the hang on back filter I ran during the cleaning. Link to comment
pewpewkittah Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 The tank is looking good! I like the scape, really eye catching and different. I have the same tank as a planted tank . To me, it looks like your cycle is coming to an end from the diatom bloom. I would do a 50% water change to get rid of some of those nitrates and add a CUC! What's the background you're using? Keep it coming with the updates! Link to comment
damaba Posted December 7, 2015 Author Share Posted December 7, 2015 Thanks Pewpewkittah, I did a 20% water change which reduced the nitrates. I'm trying to obtain some grade a live rock rubble to help with the biodiversity of the tank and seed some coraline algae. The previous stuff was just painted pieces of rubble I plan on placing an order for some macros and beef up the clean up crew by the end of the year. Currently I have 5 cierth snails and 2 checkered merit snails in hiding Tank Stats Temperature: 78°Salinity: 1.024Ammonia: 0 PPMNitrite: 0 PPMNitrate: 5-10 PPM range Link to comment
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